AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
61 
<®arkn, ©rrijarb, Caron, &c. 
SEEDS-GET THEM HEAD! AND PROVE 
THEM. 
Go into any well conducted seed store at 
almost any season of the year, and you will 
see tumblers or other vessels in a warm 
place, and partly filled with water, with a 
wad of cotton on the top of it. An examina¬ 
tion of these vessels, will show you sundry 
seeds of various kinds lying upon the cotton 
or imbeded in it, where they are not actually 
in water, but are supplied with moisture 
constantly drawn up from the water below 
the cotton. In this arrangement the seeds¬ 
men are trying the vitality of the seeds they 
have to sell. 
Now this same process, or one equally 
good, and with the larger grain better, should 
oe put into practice at once by every farmer 
and gardener. How often is the labor and 
other outlays upon a whole field lost by the 
failure of seed to vegetate. But a single 
hour’s time will suffice to test all the seed 
for a whole farm. Take corn and turnip 
seed for example. 
Select from the whole mixed mass of seed 
to be used, say fifty to one hundred grains, 
if the total quantity be large, and plant these 
in soil placed in earthen pots or boxes, and 
keep them moderately moist and warm. A 
very few days will show whether the whole 
6eed, or what proportion of it, will vegetate. 
It is always better to make two separate tri¬ 
als of each mass of seed, in order to guard 
against the accidents of wrong temperature, 
moisture, &c. For small parcels of costly 
seed, the trial need not be made with more 
than a half-a-dozen taken at random from 
the whole mass. If the common stone¬ 
ware flower pots are not convenient, any 
other vessel or box may be used. The ordi¬ 
nary earthen table bowls may be used, but 
it is always best to have a hole in the bot¬ 
tom through which water may be taken up 
by capillary attraction (be sucked up) to the 
surface. 
The tumbler of water with cotton upon 
the surface will, in most cases, suffice for 
sprouting seeds, but if they fail in this way, 
at least two trials in earth should be made 
before a final condemnation. It is a suffi¬ 
cient test if the seeds merely start a little 
germ. The south window of a cellar, or 
better, that of a warm sitting-room, will fur¬ 
nish a good place for setting the testing ves¬ 
sels. Of course, if you have a hot-house, 
(hat is still better. 
We deem the above a matter of no little 
importance, especially when seeds are pur¬ 
chased of dealers upon whose integrity you 
cannot confidently rely, and even then it is 
well to try their seeds, as well as those of 
your own production, since the germinating 
power is often lost by overheating, or other¬ 
wise in transportation, as well as during 
storage in the granary. The trial will cost 
next to nothing, and one can plant and sow 
with far more confidence and pleasure if ab¬ 
solutely certain that his seed is alive. Let 
this matter be attended to now , so that time 
may be had to replace any seed which 
chances to be defective. 
No. 1. No. 2. 
CHAPTERS ON STRAWBERRIES. 
CHAPTER III. 
We propose now to explain, by reference 
to the above pictures, the appearance of the 
different kinds of strawberry blossoms. No. 
1 represents a blossom deficient in the male 
organs, or as they are called stamens. No. 
2 is a good representation of a perfect blos¬ 
som. A mere glance at these will be suf¬ 
ficient to reveal the difference. No. 2 
presents in the centre, or rather around 
the centre, small thread-like filaments, with 
little knots on the ends, called anthers; these 
contain the fine yellow dust called pollen, 
which, falling upon the centre of the blos¬ 
soms, as seen in No. 1, fertilizes them, and 
causes the fruit to swell, which otherwise 
would soon become black and dead. No. 2 
is a perfect blossom, having both sexual or¬ 
gans. Plants having such blossoms are 
sometimes called hermaphrodite, but more 
usually staminate plants, to distinguish them 
from plants bearing blossoms, such as No. 1, 
without stamens. These are called pistillate 
plants. For plants bearing both kinds of blos¬ 
soms we have no name. They might be 
called composite. We shall then, when 
speaking of plants bearing perfect blos¬ 
soms, that is, both stamens and pistils, 
use the term staminate. When speaking of 
plants having blossoms destitute of stam¬ 
ens we shall use the term pistillate, and whun 
referring to plants bearing both kinds of blos¬ 
soms, we shall use the name composite. 
Nearly all the most esteemed and produc¬ 
tive varieties of strawberries originated in 
the United States within the last twenty 
years, have been pistillate plants, while on 
the other hand, those originated in Europe 
during the same time, have nearly all been 
staminate plants—the reason of this has 
been already referred to in a previous article. 
While these have been very productive in 
Europe, they have been as unproductive in 
the United States. The cause of this differ¬ 
ence is partly owing to the superior cultiva¬ 
tion pursued in Europe, and partly to the dif¬ 
ference in climate. 
In our climate the pistillate varieties are 
certain to set their fruit if they are impreg¬ 
nated by the pollen from staminate plants, 
while the staminate varieties, especially 
those imported from Europe, have been 
found, under ordinary cultivation, to set their 
fruit very poorly. These circumstances 
gave rise to a very decided preference for 
pistillate varieties, and also induced the 
opinion that no staminate variety would, in 
our climate, produce a full crop of large 
fruit. This opinion seems to be losing 
ground since the production of a staminate 
plant by N. Longwortb, Esq., of Cincinnati, 
which bears a good crop of large fine ber¬ 
ries, every blossom perfecting its fruit. 
That other plants, having perfect blos¬ 
soms, and bearing uniformly large fruit and 
abundant crops, will be produced, we have 
no doubt. Such kinds will, if produced, be 
preferred to pistillate plants, inasmuch as 
they will not need any other varieties to 
make them fruitful. Many object to the 
trouble of keeping two kinds in the same 
bed, as the more vigorous kind will be sure 
to overrun the less vigorous. On this ac¬ 
count it is preferable to keep the stami¬ 
nate and pistlillate kinds in separate beds. 
Among staminate varieties, we think that 
Longworth’s Prolific and the Large Early 
Scarlet, are the most desirable. The latter 
will succeed better under an indifferent cul¬ 
tivation than almost any other kind, yet none 
will better repay generous treatment. The 
only objection is that the fruit is small. 
It is the earliest fruit that ripens, and sup¬ 
plies the New-York market with its early 
strawberries. As a market fruit it pos¬ 
sesses some fine points. The fruit is among 
the very best as to flavor. Its color is a 
beautiful light scarlet, and it does jiot be¬ 
come dull by exposure as many other kinds 
do. It is also solid, and bears carriage 
well. Longworth’s Prolific is a much more 
showy berry, but it requires more care in 
its cultivation. Rich ground, made deep and 
mellow, and plenty of room, are required for 
success in the cultivation of this strawberry. 
Among the pistillate varieties that are of¬ 
fered for sale, we think the three best arc 
Hovey’s Seedling, McAvoy’s Superior, and 
Burr’s New Pine. Hovey’s Seedling has 
held its high position for twenty years, and 
is not yet surpassed, if equaled by any oth 
er variety, if we take into consideration all 
its qualities. In size it is not, in our opin 
ion, equaled by any other. It may not bi 
quite so productive as McAvoy’s Superior 
but it is more symmetrical in form, li 
point of flavor some will prefer it and some 
will prefer McAvoy’s. It is a rather dry 
berry, and not very high flavored. McAvoyV 
is more juicy and more sprightly. When 
eaten with cream and sugar, Hovey’s is, in 
our opinion, preferable, but when eaten sim 
ply with sugar it is too dry and insipid 
while McAvoy’s, treated in this manner, is 
juicy and lively. We prefer to eat straw¬ 
berries with simply sugar, and therefore se¬ 
lect McAvoy’s in preference to Hovey’s. 
Burr’s New Pine is one of the most deli 
cious strawberries ever raised in the United 
States, especially for eating out of hand. 
The plants are a little feeble in growth, and 
the fruit is rather small under ordinary cul¬ 
tivation. There is another pistillate variety 
much esteemed by market growers—the 
Crimson Cone. This is a very hardy kind, 
productive and beautiful, of small size and 
rather acid. 
Next month, we shall treat of practical 
operations in planting, &c. _ 
A dirty kitchen and bad cooking have 
driven many a one from home to seek com¬ 
fort and happiness somewhere else. 
